Lighting is one sure-fire way to transform any room, and how well thought out your lighting scheme is can truly make or break a room. So if you’re having your kitchen redone, you may be thinking about your lighting options and wondering what exactly you need to be thinking about.
In the kitchen, lighting is essential for preparing and cooking meals, and also helps to set the mood of the room, say if you’re also entertaining guests or enjoying a relaxing evening meal. With that in mind, we thought we’d give you some top tips on getting your kitchen lighting spot on.
Think about the purpose of your lights
The first thing to think about before making any decisions based on aesthetics is the function of the lights and what exactly you want to achieve with your lighting scheme.
Lighting typically falls into two categories; task lighting, which illuminates the areas where you will be working, such as countertops, and ambient lighting which helps to set the mood of the room.
Task lighting
First of all, you’ll want to make sure that your kitchen has plenty of light where you’ll be performing tasks, including your worktops, stove, and sink areas. Under-cabinet lights tend to work really well for this purpose, as do pendant lights over kitchen islands. Be sure to evenly space lighting to illuminate the whole area you are focusing on.
If your kitchen design does not include wall cabinets, you could opt for stylish fixed wall lights at a strategic height instead to ensure you can prepare food without shadows. This article from Living Etc has some great lighting ideas that you might not have thought of!
Ambient lighting
The next thing to think about is how best to incorporate ambient lighting in your kitchen. You can get really creative with this, and there are a lot of fun ways to add a little ambiance.
If you have open shelves, you could add LED strips along the edge to cast a subtle glow on the items you keep on them and add some low lighting to the room.
Dimmer switches are also a great idea for creating an ambient glow when needed, but increasing the lighting when you need to brighten the room. Smart lighting is also a great option, and you can do all sorts of cool things from having different color schemes to suit different moods. Here is a bit of a roundup of some ways that smart lighting can be utilized in the kitchen! – Hardwood Flooring
We spoke to Lakeland Kitchens who told us “layering your lighting using a number of different sources will give a more three-dimensional feel. It’s a good idea to have each light source controlled individually so that you can switch up your lighting to suit your needs.”
Consider placement
One important consideration, especially if you are using track lighting, is to position any spotlights so that they don’t shine in your eyes. This is particularly worth bearing in mind when it comes to central islands, as what may be perfect lighting for standing and working may be glaring when seated.
